The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-17
A POOR ANSWER.
By REV. JACOB MERRIFIELD.
tPlainfield, ILL

ILL
| Some time ago the Independent said :
'The question is asked frequently now
a-days: What will God do with those
in heather lands who have neither ac-
cepted nor rejected Christ, because they
have never had a chance to hear of
him p 1t is a sufficient answer to say
that God will deal with them right, and
that their unfortunate position ought
to stimulate us to increased missionary
zeal.'
This dodge of the Independent is only
a reiteratiOn in substance of the stereo-
typed expression so often heard con-
cerning those who die without accept
ing the orthodox creed, or making
any profession whatever of religion.
1--WE leave them in the hands of a just
God" AS if they could be, under any
circumstances, left anywhere else than
just there, where every one as to the
finality of his being has to be left any
way.
What, therefore, the Independent calls
a sufficient answer is no answer at all,
any more than the expression, "a man
is man, is an answer to the question,
"What is map ?" We remember the
time when in early boyhoOd we asked
our good grandmother the meaning of
the German word, bestelt, and her very
kind, but not very luminous answer ::
"Why, Jacob, beStelh is bestelh;;o and
we are always reminded Of the Incident
when we see or hear the wisdom Of the
ologians airing itself through such ex-
pressions as "God will do right in the
case," and the like. The question is
not whether God may be going to do
right or not, las if it were possible for
him to do otherwise than right in any
case), but, "What is that right thing
which God is going to do ?"
The question relates, not only to the
heathen who neither accept nor reject
Christ, because they have never heard
of him, but to all others, as well, who
pass from the present state without, as
yet, being religiously developed, or as
the saying is, without having accepted
Christ ;" for throughout ChTistendOm,
as we'll as in all heathendom, millions
are all the while passing from the
earthly, not only without coming to the
terms prescribed by orthodoxy" but
without even a thought, so to speak, on
the formation of religious character.
The inquiry is question of the heart,
as we'll as of the intellect. Men want
to know what hope there may be for
their fellows, as well as for themselves,
concerning the future. The intellect
wants some indication, some promise
to the effect that no ones being shall
prove a failure; the heart Graves an
assurance that love shall triumph in the
end, and that none of the objects of its
affection shall perish everlastingly ;"
the inmOst and best of our being, the
divine principle within us, the Christ
of our nature, claims that the universal
family of souls shall not be broken up
forever, but on the contrary, harmo-
nized; not separated for eternity, but
united in the peace of pure, divine and
imperishable love. Neither the heart
nor the mind, nor the Christ within is
going to be put off, and restrained from
inquiry by the mere saying, which no
one disputes, that God will do right,
that he will deal justly with those who
pass into the future without as yet
having formed religious character.
That God will do right, that he al
ways has done right, that he does right
now, and that to endless ages he will
still do right, is the positive conviction
of everybody who believes in the divine
existence; that all his dealings with
all souls, in all worlds, and in all
spheres of being, are right dealings no
one denies or calls in question for
moment. This is the question "Wbat
is that right dealing that God is going
to have with men as to the fnality of
their being? What is that right dis
posal which he is going to make in the
future of the souls that pass into the
future without having become here en-
lightened
What is that just and good thing
that God is going to do, not only with
"those heathen' who neither accept
nor reject Christ here because they
know nothing of him here, but also
with all others, Christians, Jews, Mo
hammedans and what not, who die
without conversion ?' What is going
to become finally of all such charactersP